"Know that the Lord is God"

 

"But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!" Ð verse 27

"Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive." – verse 30

 

            Dan Evich was on the basketball team when I was in high school, and he had a sharp wit and a cynical spirit. He enjoyed needling me about my churchgoing and faith in God. Whenever we would walk by a church, he would look at me with his knowing little smile and say "That's God's House! God lives in there."And then he would roll his eyes and see if he could get a response from me.

            Why do we call the church building "God's House?" The answer has roots that stretch back 3,000 years, to the time when Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. When the Lord gave Israel rest from all its enemies, and the nation gained some prosperity, Solomon decided it was time to build a temple. The people were now living securely, and the land was in their possession. But if they no longer had to worry about Philistines and Ammonites, an even more serious conflict threatened them. Would they continue to worship and obey the Lord, or would they wander off into the idol worship of the Canaanites? At issue was the covenant with God they had received from Moses at Sinai. In his commentary, August Konkel writes "the theme of I Kings is the faithfulness of God and the disaster of the nation's failure to keep the Covenant." It is in the midst of this spiritual conflict over the soul of Israel that the temple is built.

            A temple is quite different in its purpose from a synagogue or a cathedral or a church building. Temples were common in the ancient world. In the pagan temples, there was a holy place or a "dark place" where an idol would be kept. Then, through ceremony or ritual, the belief was that a spirit or god would enter the idol and live there. The temple was the place for people to meet with or encounter the spirit through prayers and ceremonies. A temple then was not a place of study or proclamation, but a place of prayer and experience with the god or spirit who lived in the idol.

            The temple that Solomon built was similar in design, but much different in purpose.  There was no sense that the Lord was contained by the building, or that God lived in the building. As Solomon says, even the heavens are not able to contain the Lord. But in the holy place of the temple, there was the Ark of the Covenant, a box containing the Ten Commandments, the covenant between God and Israel. The ark was seen merely as the footstool of the Lord, a sacred space where the Lord touched earth, but was never bound by it. The temple told the people that there is a relationship with the living God of the whole earth that is to be at the center of their lives.

            Konkel gives four purposes of the temple in Jerusalem:

• The temple assures the people that God has secured a royal dynasty for his people. God made a promise to David and his descendants that they would remain on the throne as long as they were faithful to the Covenant.

• The temple is the place where the ark of God's Covenant finds its rest. The Covenant is the bond that unites God and Israel. The temple directed the people to a faith relationship with God.

• The temple becomes the focal point for prayer, because God watches his temple and hears the prayers that come from the temple. The heart of prayer is the cry for mercy. Forgiveness is found at the temple.

• The temple is to be shared with the world. The nations are to come to it to pray and to know the true God.

            Solomon then prays at the dedication of the temple. He is very honest in his praying. He knows that people will continue to sin, that Israel will wander. So he prays primarily that the temple will be a place where God hears prayer and forgives.

             The temple is a sacred space. Its very presence gives assurance to people that God hears prayer and forgives. Its very presence provides a place for the people of the nations to come and pray to the Living God, and for their prayers to be heard. Its presence is a physical space that centers the nation on the covenant relationship with God. It calls people to follow his ways.

            A thousand years later, Jesus walked into Jerusalem and entered the temple, now the third temple built on that site, the latest by Herod. It was magnificent as a structure, but Jesus found it to be a place that was too busy with buying and selling so that it was no longer a place of prayer. He also found it to be a place that was not welcoming to the people of the nations. He said it would soon fall down, which it did, in 70 A.D.

            The temple narrative raises several issues for us. There is nothing in our lives that holds all the functions of the Old Testament temple. But the temple does speak to us about our prayer life and about living faithfully with God. When you pray, what assures you that God hears you, and that He forgives you? The question is not, "Do you feel God gives you everything you ask of Him?" The issue is, do you have a sacred space of sanctuary, of safety in your life? So whether your life seems to be a mess, or whether you feel like a failure, or whether guilt over your past haunts you, you are able to pray and be assured that God hears you and forgives. Where do you find that assurance?

            Over the years I have gotten to know a number of homeless people who come here often. When they come, they ask for money, but I have come to understand that when they ask for money, it's not really the money. They come for sanctuary. They come for some moments of safety in the midst of lives that are chaotic and very frightening. They come for some assurance that someone hears them.

 I think that is often why you come to church on Sundays as well. In the press and distraction and chaos of life, you want to find a place of safety, a presence of the Lord, an assurance that your prayers are heard, that you are seen by God.

             When we come before God, we may not be conscious of a particular sin we have committed. But we feel more generally that we have fallen short, or we are aware that we do tend to wander. The temple brought renewal to a wandering people. Our prayers for mercy and forgiveness draw us back into the ways of the Lord. We come to find the shepherd. "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." When we pray, we find renewal in the Lord.

             Does God hear our prayers? The cross assures us. Our experience in life may not assure us. The cross of Jesus gives us the absolute certainty that our prayer for mercy has been heard, and answered. At the cross, God has spoken our forgiveness. At the cross, we know God hears us. "Jesus, keep me near the cross."

            Finally, are the people of the nations welcome in your place of prayer? The temple was to be a place of prayer for people from all the nations. Do you find that the pressures and temptations of the world are causing you to become more like the world, are you becoming the person you never intended to be? Or are the people of the nations, the people of the secular world, coming to find a relationship with the true God, because of your welcome, your hospitality, your prayer. Does your place of prayer leave room for others? As you come to the Lord for refuge, for safety, for care and healing, are others welcome to come with you? If so, then the purpose of the temple has found a home in you.

           Amen.